last it submerged that part of Holland which joined N. Holland to Friesland and Overyssel, and formed the great inlet now known as the Zuyder Zee. 10. To the East of the Rhine, and also running into the German Ocean, follow successively Amisia fl. Ems, Visurgis fl. Weser, and Albis1 fl. Elbe; the first of these is the smallest, being only 210 miles from its source in the Teutoburger Wald to its mouth at Emden; the Visurgis 15 rises in the Thuringer Wald, and flows with a Northerly course of 440 miles into the sea opposite Actania I. Heligoland. The source of the Elbe is in the Hercynii Mtes., whence it pursues a N. W. course of 640 miles, through the middle of Germany into the sea opposite Heligoland; its Southernmost tributary is the Moldau, but it is joined not far from Magdeburg by the Sala Saale, the salt springs near which occasioned such frequent disputes between the Catti and Hermunduri. The Viadrus Oder, and Vistula Vistula (or Weichsel), empty themselves into Sinus Codanus; their sources are but a few miles apart in Asciburgius Mons, which is the W. part of the Carpathian Ms. The Viadrus appears to have borne the epithet Suevus; one of its mouths is still called Schwiene; its length its 503 miles, and it enters the sea near Rugen I. The length of the Vistula is 576 miles, which it pursues with a tortuous course, and enters the sea at Venedicus Sinus G. of Dantzig.-Amongst the E. tributaries of the Rhine we may notice Nicer fl. Neckar, which joined it at Mannheim; Mænus fl. Mayn, which, rising in the Fichtel Berg and passing by Frankfurt, entered it at Maynz; Segus fl. Sieg, and Luppia fl. Lippe, the former flowing into it at Bonn, the latter at Wesel. 16 11. The inhabitants of Germany have been divided into six classes. I. The Vindili, in the N. E. part of Germany; amongst whom were the Gothones, Burgundiones, Langobardi and Angli. II. The Ingævones, in Holland, N. W. Germany, and in Denmark; amongst whom were the Cimbri, Saxones, Cauci, and Frisii. III. The Istævones, composed of tribes cantoned on the Rhine, in Westphalia, and the Lower Rhine ; 14 Fundat ab extremo flavos Aquilone Suevos 15 Tu Tuncrum, et Vachalim, Visurgin, Albin, Intrares venerantibus Sicambris, Lucan. II. 52. Sidon. Apoll. carm. XXIII. ad Narb. 244. 16 Bructerus ulvosâ quem vel Nicer alluit undá, Prorumpit Francus. Sidon. Apoll. carm. VII. 324. amongst whom were the Chamavi, Bructeri, Sicambri, Ubii, and Mattiaci. IV. The Hermiones, inhabiting the remainder of Germany N. of the Danube, with parts of Hungary, Galicia, and Poland; amongst them were the Semnones, Cherusci, Catti, Hermunduri, Marcomanni or Boemi, Juthungi, Quadi, and Lygii. V. The inhabitants of the Decumates Agri, in Swabia, including the Suevi and other tribes. VI. The Scandinavians, in Sweden and Norway.-The Bastarna and Peucini, who bordered on the Daci, formed another division; but their territory does not belong to the country we are now describing. 12. From the want of details respecting the various nations of Germany, as well as from the frequent migrations to which they resorted, it will be found convenient, in pointing out their general situations, to class them under these divisions, without pretending to assign to each one the whole of its component tribes. The Germans are said to have had no cities 17: but, that they possessed congregated dwellingplaces, or positions fortified after a certain manner, the names of many which are recorded sufficiently prove.-The extent of territory included in the six divisions mentioned above, may be seen in the following table: Sq.Miles. 33.600 23.400 13.800 108.900 11.200 190.900 80.000 270.900 13. THE VINDILI or Vandali 18.--The territory of the Vindili comprehended 33.600 square miles. The Westernmost of these people were the Angli, seated in parts of Mecklenburg and Hanover, and famed in conjunction with the Saxones for the conquest of England, which owes its name to them; Alistus or Alisus Schwerin was one of their towns. East of them also in Mecklenburg were the Varini or Viruni, on the R. Warnow, with their town Laciburgium Rostock, and still farther E. on the coast of Pomerania, were the Eudoses, Suardones or Sideni, Rugii with their town Rugium Rugenwalde, and the Lemovii. 17 Nullas Germanorum populis urbes habitari, satis notum est, ne pati quidem inter se junctas sedes. Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit. Tacit. de Mor. Germ. 16. 18 Denique Romanus, Daha, Sarmata, Vandalus, Hunnus, Unâ omnes gradiuntur humo, cælum omnibus unum est, Aurel. Prudent. Clem. in Sym. II. 327. 14. The Heruli are supposed to have been the same with the Lemovii, or to have afterwards occupied their country; the little river Reddaune, which enters the sea at Dantzig, seems to be a corruption of Eridanus fl., and it is hence supposed by some, that this name was applied to the Vistula, and that the adjacent country, in the neighbourhood of the Veneda and the Electrides Iæ., was the place where the Phaethonthiades 19 wept their tears of electrum for the death of their brother: this scene is, however, more generally placed on the Italian Eridanus or Po. 15. The Gothones, called also Guttones and Gothi, dwelled about the mouth of the Vistula in W. Prussia; they were an illustrious people, who proceeding Southwards entered Dacia, and after crossing the Danube attacked the provinces of the Roman Empire; they are said to have issued from Scandinavia Scurgum Skarszewa, and Ascaucalis Karczen, were in their territory. South West of them in Neumark and Posen were the Burgundiones, who upon being driven from their country, wandered through Germany towards the Decumates Agri and thence into Gaul, where the province of Burgundy, allotted to them, still retains their name; their town Setidava is probably the modern Posen. Between the Burgundiones and Angli in Altmark and Mittelmark, were the Langobardi, celebrated for their bravery though few in number; they are said to have migrated from Scandinavia, where their original name was Vinili, which they exchanged for one denoting their "long beards:" to them may be reckoned. Susudata Berlin on the R. Spree, the metropolis of the Prussian dominions. 16. The Gothi are said by some to have issued from Scandinavia, but there seems little doubt about their first settlements having been about the mouth of the Vistula and the Gulf of Dantzig, in which neighbourhood they were probably met with by the navigator Pytheas, more than 300 years B. C. They are sometimes included amongst the Scythian nations, one of whom, called the Veneda, drove them Westward and Southward, upon which occasion it is thought many of them first settled in Sweden. Towards the end of the second century, we find them in the neighbourhood of the R. Boug, partly occupying Dacia and partly dwelling on the shores of the Euxine Sea; whence they made desolating irruptions upon Mesia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyricum, till they were beaten, about A.D. 270, by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Claudius, who is said to have killed no less than 300,000 of them in one battle. They plundered the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and ruined Troy: and about this time also divided themselves into two bodies, henceforward known as the Ostrogothæ or Eastern Goths, and Visigothæ or Western Goths. About the year 375, the Visigoths were beaten by the Huns, and compelled to take refuge on the Southern side of the Danube, whereupon the Emperor Valens permitted them to settle in his dominions; but they soon took up arms against him, and having murdered him, wandered over Italy, Gaul, and Spain, committing all sorts of 19 Nec minus Heliades fletus, et inania morti * Inde fluunt lacrymæ: stillataque sole rigescunt Ovid. Met. II. 342. et seq. K atrocities with fire and sword. During the reign of Honorius, about the year 415, after having been driven out of Italy, they founded two great kingdoms; one in Spain, which lasted till the time of Roderick at the commencement of the eighth century, when it was destroyed by the Saracens; and the other in Gaul, which though it was somewhat crippled by the Franks, lasted for many centuries. The Ostrogoths 20, under their king Theodoric, beat the Heruli and Turcilingi near Ravenna, A.D. 492, subsequently conquered the Northern part of Italy, and finally, under Totila, took Rome in the year 549. About four years after this, their Empire was destroyed by the Emperor Justinian, who sent against them Narsetes and Belisarius, by whom Totila was routed and slain, and the dominion of the Goths in Italy destroyed. 17. Besides the tribes above mentioned, there were the minor ones, Reudigni, Aviones or Avarpi, Teutonari, Teutones with their town Virutium Vierraden, the Carini, and Pharodini; these were N. of the Langobardi, in parts of Mittelmark, Ukermark, and Mecklenburg. The Nuithones, Scyri, and Turcilingi were N. of the Burgundiones, in a part of Neumark.-In the Baltic, N. of the territory of the Vindili, was an island sacred to the deity Hertha 21 or Mother Earth, thought to be the same now called Rugen; and beyond it was Codanonia, supposed by some to be Bornholm, but it was probably the same with Scandinavia or the peninsula of Sweden. The Glessaria Insulæ, called by the Greeks Electrides, were off the mouths of the Vistula and Pregel, near the Frische Nehrung and Pillau: they furnished the ancients with quantities of amber, which is still found on the coast hereabouts. These were the Eastern, and most productive of the Glessariæ; the others were scattered up and down the coast of the Ingævones in the German Ocean; the most considerable of them were Austeravia Spiker Oog, and Byrchanis or Fabaria Borkum. 18. THE INGEVONES were scattered over a territory of 23.400 square miles. The peninsula of Denmark was called Cimbrica Chersonesus or Cartris, from the Cimbri 22 or Cimmerii, a particular people who are said to have once dwelled there; but if they existed latterly in that neighbourhood, they must have been an insignificant tribe near Cimbrorum Prom. or The Shaw, which is the N. extremity of Jutland. 19. The name of Cimbri is thought to have beenused collectively to distinguish the petty tribes inhabiting the peninsula, in the same way that it was once applied to all the Germans as a body from their being descendants of Gomer; these petty tribes were the Charudes, Phundusii, and Chali, in Jutland, the Cobandi and Sigulones in Sleswig, and the Sabalingii in North Eastern Holstein. These obscure tribes, six in number, were united as early as the sixth century, under the national appellation of Dani or Danes; a name which they are supposed either to have derived, or held in common with the Danciones, a tribe equally obscure with themselves placed by Ptolemy in Scandinavia. From them too the Sinus Codanus or the Baltic, and the I. Codanonia, supposed by many to be the same with Sweden, are thought to have obtained their names. The Danes were a savage and merciless set of pirates, who are best known from the ravages which they committed in Britain during the 21 20 Ostrogothis colitur mistisque Gruthungis Claudian. in Eutrop. II. 152. in commune Hertham, id est, Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur. Tacit. de Mor. Germ. 40. 22 Hic Cimbros fortesque Getas, Stilichone peremtos Et Mario, claris ducibus, tegit Itala tellus. Claudian. de Bell. Get. 645. Saxon monarchy.-Off the Western coast of the Cimbrian peninsula are the Alociæ Iæ. near Sylt, and farther South lie the Saxonum læ. Neuwerck and Dick Is.; Actania I., off the mouths of the Weser and Elbe, has been already noticed as Heligoland. 20. The Saxones 23 originally dwelled in the duchy of Holstein; they were one of the most illustrious nations of Germany, and have transmitted their name to a great portion of that country. The contracted territory in which we find them first scated, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the British Island with their language, their laws, and their colonies; and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne. But many of the German tribes were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship, owing to a similarity of manners, and the loose and unsettled constitution by which they were governed. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the hazardous professions of fishermen and pirates; and the success of their first adventures naturally excited the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Whole fleets of canoes sailed down the Elbe, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded prospect of the ocean, and to taste the wealth and luxury of unknown worlds. The rumour of these successful armaments soon provoked others. The various troops of pirates and adventurers who fought under the same standard, were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine and afterwards of government a military confederation was gradually moulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity; and the adjacent tribes who solicited the alliance, accepted the name and laws of the Saxons. Hence we find them in process of time the first amongst all the nations of the Ingævones, giving laws to the rest of their countrymen, and introducing those arts of life amongst them, with which their fortunate expeditions into other countries, had in a manner made them familiar. It was thus that their power rose to a height hitherto unheard of amongst the barbarians of the North, and so formidable did it become, that in order to repress its tyranny and encroachment a league was formed against the Saxons by the various tribes towards the Rhine, who hence called themselves Franci21 or Free-men. The chief towns of |